You’re paying a price. And it’s higher than you might think. Much of the cost has been hidden, swept under the metaphorical rug. But it’s still there. It’s always been there….. lurking… watching…waiting… ready to take your hard-earned dollars under the guise of free stuff and good feelings… of bright warm colours and rewards.
How do you fight something that’s deceptively trying to eat your money? By maxing out of course! Speaking of eating… I hope you like cake!
In Part 2, we discussed how to properly calculate the value of PC Optimum Points by converting the program from a points style system to a cash back style system. This provided a much more accurate value of what your points are actually worth. We also talked about what it really costs you to get all this “free stuff” from the Optimum program. Today we’re going to dig into various ways we can minimize this cost by maximizing the program to its fullest.
Before we get too much further, I don’t want to overload you with calculations. So I’ve linked them here for those who are interested in the fine details… Or for those who don’t trust my math! 😉
But for those who won’t bother checking out the finer details, the below chart (and example) contains the formula that I’ve based all of what follows as pertaining to any mention of real cash back percent. Just plug in the numbers and go.
Now, let’s begin.
Baking An “Optimum Points” Cake
Collecting points with the PC Optimum program is like baking a cake. There are steps you need to follow, ingredients you need to have, and with a bit of art and skill, you can make something delicious! In the following sections, we’ll find out how many “times the points” you’ll receive for each strategy, and what they work out to as a real cash back percentage.
The Cake Platter (“No PC Card”)
The first thing with cakes is that you need to have something to put them on, which is the Cake Platter. This is the lowest level of the program, NEIGH, it’s actually even less than low.
The platter level is where SDM operates on their highest profit margins and where you get nothing for your efforts because you don’t have an Optimum account. No Points. No cash back. Nada! Just overpriced, expensive items that you likely don’t need. Return equals 0%.
The Cake Ingredients (“Base Points”)
Now we’re one step up from less than low. Welcome to the “lowest” level… The Cake Ingredients. You haven’t mixed or made anything with them, they’re just there. Awaiting their future. At this step, the value is still poor. Actually it’s quite terrible really. You wouldn’t eat flour straight from the bag? Or raw eggs? NEIGH!
At this level, you now have a PC Optimum account. You show your PC card during transactions and get some base points. You don’t know or care about bonus point days. All this amounts to is getting 15 base points on every dollar you spend, which is equivalent to 1x the points. What does this equate for a real cash back return? A measly 1.5%.
As I said… absolutely terrible. No better than your average cash back credit card, and actually kind of worse. This is because your pitiful 1.5% is deflated by the generally overpriced SDM goods that you could get cheaper elsewhere.
The Vanilla Cake Base (The “20x the points” event)
The next step up provides us the most bang for our buck; the new vanilla cake baseline. This step is where the ingredients have been mixed and baked, and now we have a lovely plain vanilla cake. The majority of the cake is now made.
This step provides a lovely 23% real cash back return and is where you should focus most of your efforts on. To get this delicious 23%, you need to be only shopping on the 20x the points event days. Why this particular event? Because it’s by far the most frequent one.
The catch is that you will have to meet a certain threshold of spending on those days, usually $50 or more. The danger with this is that if you don’t have enough items on your list to meet that threshold, you may be tempted to purchase things you normally wouldn’t buy to bump your bill up to $50. This is in part how SDM tries to deceptively get you, which will eat into the value of your points. So only buy what you need.
The Chocolate Cake Base (The “$75 Event”)
There are more cake flavours out there other than vanilla, such as chocolate cake. With a more flavourful and richer combination of ingredients, this level provides a 25% cash back (which is a slight improvement over the 20x the points events.
The $75 event gives out the most points per dollar of all the bonus accumulation events. You’ll receive 25,000pts which is equivalent to 22.22x the points. Of course there is a catch! Not only do you have to buy enough items to reach $75 to get the specified points, but any dollar spent over $75 receives zero bonus points. Therefore, you really need to be right on the mark with your grocery list, or else every dollar you’re over will further decrease the value of the points you get for that purchase.
At a certain point, the 20x event overtakes the $75 event. This is just around the $84 mark where they are both equivalent. If you’re spending over $84, then the 20x event provides a better value. Another challenging part about the $75 event is that they happen so infrequently to play a large role in point accumulations.
It also has the same problem that the 20x events have, where you may be tempted to buy excess items to reach your required minimum amount.
Cakes Who Shall Not Be Named…
There are a couple other events that could be considered among the main attractions. These would be the Senior’s Day 20% Discount and the 20x the points on Beauty Products. I don’t typically care for either because: A) I’m not a senior and B) I’m beautiful enough as I am.
The former has a lower value than a typical 20x the points event at 20% vs 23% real cash back. The discount also only applies to regular priced items, however the 20x event applies to regular AND sale items. The Senior’s Discount never occurs with other major events so it’s not stackable with them. It’s also limited to “Senior” qualified individuals.
As for the latter, you can get all your beauty stuff on regular 20x the points days so you’re not limited to what you can purchase and get points for.
Cake Frosting (The “PC Mastercards”)
Of course, with the majority of the cake already complete, we CAN’T forget about the frosting. Although it is a significantly smaller part of the overall cake, it still plays an important and valuable role. At this level, we have the three PC Financial Mastercards:
- The PC Financial Mastercard
- The PC Financial World Mastercard
- The PC Financial World Elite Mastercard
These provide 10, 20, and 30 bonus points per dollar spent respectively. It goes without saying that you should only be using this card if you are able to pay it off in full each month, because the interest alone is a nightmare.
The highest tier card (the World Elite) is the one you should be aiming to get because of the most extra points. However, they’re all subject to credit approval and different individual and household income levels. While this can present a barrier, you can always get the lowest tier card, then ask for an upgrade even if you don’t meet the next cards thresholds. None of them have an annual fee!
These three cards provide a real cash back value of 1%, 2%, and 3%. This is equivalent to 0.67x, 1.33x, and 2x respectively.
The other minor benefit to using these Mastercards is that you’ll also receive 3% back on any taxes you’re paying on your purchase. All other things considered, it’s a very microscopic amount of the overall real cash back return. It’s like Honey I Shrunk The Kids tiny. Think 1/3 of 1%.
Getting and or using these Mastercards shouldn’t be your principal focus. Remember, they’re just the icing on the cake. Your main efforts should be on the big events like the 20x events where you can get at least 23% cash back.
The Cherry On Top! (“The Big 5,000”)
Not all cakes have cherries, but when they do are they ever good! Unless you don’t like cherries… But THESE cherries you’ll like! There is a little add-on event from time to time when SDM advertises that if you use your PC Mastercard for a purchase, you’ll receive 5,000 extra bonus points just for using the card.
The “Big 5,000” is one of the special events that does not occur very frequently but still provides a hefty little bonus when it does show up!
These points are also on top of the 10/20/30 points per dollar you’d already get for using the various tiered PC Mastercards. There is usually a spending minimum with this offer, like $40 or $50. It will often show up for 20x the points events, and provides a real cash back value of 9%! This is equivalent to 6.67x the points.
As you can see, this is a pretty solid extra if you’re going to use your credit card anyway.
Sprinkles On The Cake (“The Gift Card Method”)
If you choose to add sprinkles to a cake, they’ll make up quite a tiny percentage of it. They don’t really taste that great and don’t provide a lot of value other than a bit of extra colour and décor.
The Gift Card method involves purchasing an SDM gift card before you go to a bonus point event, then use that gift card to pay for the event transaction. What this allows you to do is essentially double dip on base points.
Let’s say for example, you’re planning to go to a “20x the points event when spending $50 or more”. When you buy a $50 SDM gift card beforehand you will get 750pts (at 15pts/dollar). SDM gift cards are treated like real cash, so now when you go to use the $50 gift card you’ll get 15,000 points. In total, you will have received 15,750 pts instead of only 15,000pts for the event.
Now, those 750pts are pretty pitiful and by themselves are technically only worth 1.5% cash back (1x the points). But with all the other little methods, these tiny percentages can add up quickly.
I used to use this method as part of an overall points strategy but gave up a while back. There’s a fair bit of planning and execution required for minimal extra return (1.5%) but many logistical issues.
You have to spend time in line to buy a gift card. Then you have to go to your bonus event. Then you either have to refill your gift card with more funds for another event, or buy a new one. If you didn’t use all the funds on your card, the cashiers often have difficulty refilling the card (and others don’t even know this is possible), so you’ll end up with multiple gift cards, with one or more having multiple leftover balances which you have to try and keep track of so you’ll know if you have enough to cover your next event spending. WHEWH!! That was a long rant.
One interesting point on SDM gift cards is that you can use them to pay for SDM Pharmacy prescriptions even though many pharmacy employees aren’t aware of this. Again, it’s a measly 1.5% for all that effort. Use your time wisely.
Bonus Points On Specific Products.
The cake is more or less complete at this point, and I’ve also run out of cake metaphors. But there’s still a few other notable things we can look at such as getting bonus points on specific products. These occur on an in-store specific product, and would advertise something like “get 5,000 bonus points when you buy 2 or more toothpastes”
I generally don’t include these for overall point strategies as they vary widely in value and frequency depending on the product. It’s also difficult to apply a general rule for them. All I will say is, if the item is part of your regular grocery staples AND it provides extra bonus points AND is not overpriced, then it’s probably worth it. Buy it!
PC App Weekly Offers and the “Ol’ One Cent Trick”!
Now this one is a funny little badger. The PC App is basically a digital flyer that’s personalized according to your specific shopping habits. The more of an item you buy, the more you’ll receive weekly offers for that particular item. Not all products will qualify for this, but quite a lot do. The most common type of offer is “get X points for every Y dollars spent” on the product.
Ie: 400 points for every $2 spent on No Name Burritos; or 800 points for every $4 spent on PC Cheese Blocks.
At first glance, all these different combos of points and dollar figures might seem random. But NEIGH! They are not! When you crunch the numbers you’ll get a cash back value of ~16.7% every time (13.3x the points)! It’s an odd number for sure, but it seems pretty high, right? Wrong again! PC likes to pull a little sneaky on ya with this one.
Take the cheese blocks example from above. If you get an offer just like that (800pts for every $4 spent), you’ll find out that when you go in to pick up some cheesy blocks, PC will have them priced for $3.99. But your brain will automatically round up and think, “Yay! Two blocks for $4 each! We did it!!!”. But because you only spent $7.98 on cheese, you won’t trigger the offer for 800 pts. You will need to actually purchase THREE cheese blocks for a total of $11.97.
When you adjust the calculation for this, instead of that juicy 16.7% cash back you were expecting you’re now down to 9% (6.67x the points). Man, when I realized how they were working us with this one I was so pissed.
Of course, if you bought 4 cheese blocks, then the percent goes up a bit, to about 11ish, and for every one more you buy, it keeps going slightly higher. But then, that’s how they get you to spend more than you originally planned compared to what you actually need.
The other type of item offer you’ll find on the PC App Weekly Offer is somewhat similar. It’ll be something like “Get 400 pts for every pack of No-Name hot dogs purchased”. This offer is a lot less deceptive. However, you’ll find that the points they give you for the price point of the item are still around that 12 percent range.
PC Optimum Insiders Subscription
(aka “The Crusty Day-Old Cake You Payed Too Much For”)
I don’t like it.
That is all.
Actually, the Insiders subscription had some pretty substantial and negative changes made to it in September 2020 which irritated a lot of people. I’m not going to discuss what it used to be, only what it is now. You can see what was changed here.
The current Insiders program is “advertised” to give you 10% back in points on “PC” specific products, among other theoretical benefits.
At first, that “10% back” sounds all well and good. But there’s this whole “annual fee” thing ($119 + tax) I’m not a big fan of. Then there’s the fact that you’re limited to getting points only on PC products in PC branded stores. And there’s also the issue that even with any potential return from Insiders, Non-PC groceries may still be cheaper. All these things take a big chunk out of that 10% back in points (aka 9% real cash back).
To figure out the actual value, if any, you can get out of the Insiders Subscription you’ll need to know a few things. You will have to figure out how much it’ll take to break even with the annual fee, what your annual grocery spending is, and what percentage of your overall groceries are PC vs Non-PC items. Have a look at the following chart to find out where you’re at.
I can tell what you’re thinking. ‘Where in the Hell is that 9% real cash back they promised us???” Well, after I did these calculations I thought the same thing! The answer is that PC never intended you to receive that high of a return unless your grocery bill reaches a stratospheric amount.
If ALL you buy is PC stuff at PC stores, then you’ll get a nice little return, but I don’t know ANYONE who actually does that. Realistically, the amount most people fall into is maybe 25% of your groceries being PC brand and bought in PC stores.
By the way, if you hadn’t noticed, that 25% / 75% row is absolute shite for value. Coincidence? I think not. You’re actually LOSING money on Insiders until you hit around the $600/mo mark. Even then, the return is SO tiny, it’s not worth your time. Remember, we’re not here for sprinkles. We’d rather have the cake!
And for those people who have been Hocus Pocussed by the glitter of potentially receiving hundreds of dollars of points back, you’d be much better off just spending less than seeking additional points by buying more!
Buying more to save more does not equal spending less.
Spending less equals spending less!
Which brings up my last point about Insiders. Just because you have an Insiders subscription doesn’t mean you should be buying PC stuff every time. Find out the percentage you’re currently getting on the above chart. If a Non-PC product is cheaper than the same PC product by the percentage you are currently getting from your spending habits, then buy the Non-PC item instead. Ironically when you end up doing this, it proves that the Insiders was a waste of money.
The Cake Recipe Of Your Choosing
So now that we have all of these different ways of accumulating points, what’s the end result?
Here’s all of our potential cake ingredients:
So how are you going to choose to make your cake? Remember that you can overdecorate a cake too! And we don’t want that now do we?
The Curious Case of Non-Scaling
Although it may seem easy enough to just pick your strategies and add the percentages together to get the total, it’s not quite that simple. Individually, you can take the RCB % at face value. But when you combine two or more strategies, you need to add their “times the points (Xx) values” together, then convert that to a percentage return.
Ie: If you’re using two strategies together where one provides 25x the points, and the other provides 5x the points, you need to combine them first, ending up with 30x the points (or 450 pts/dollar). This is then converted to a real cash back return of 31%. See the chart below for a quick guide on the conversions, or use the real cash back formula at the beginning of this article for your own amounts.
How I Make MY Cake:
I tend to use only the 20x events because they occur the most frequently and are less limiting than the other events. I don’t use the SDM gift cards anymore because of the terrible effort-to-reward ratio. I don’t bother with PC Insiders subscription as it has too much variability spending habits with too little overall return, and sometimes even negative returns. And I don’t count on the PC App Weekly Offers or the in-store special bonus offers because the only way to get that full 9% extra is if your entire purchase consists of those products. Hence, they usually barely affect your overall grocery average.
Therefore, my current preferred points strategy is as follows:
x20 events + PC World Elite Financial Mastercard (2x the pts) + the occasional PC MasterCard 5000 bonus points (6.7x the points). This gives me a total of 22x to 28.7x the points, which is equivalent to ~25% – 30% real cashback. This is the most time efficient and consistent way for maximizing the program’s value.
Of course, if time, effort, and patience is of no concern, you could reach ~25x – 32x the pts (27% – 32% real cash back) from time to time; perhaps a bit higher if you end up using the PC app weekly ads or the in-store bonus point items. But while you may have already climbed 90% of the mountain, that last 10% is always a pain in the ass and usually not worth your time.
BUT WAIT! Sparklers?!?!?
Did we forget about something? Why yes. Yes indeed. Sparklers on a cake may be short-lived, but man oh man do they provide a big bang! Thus, we can’t forget about adding the other side of the PC Points equation, the Bonus Redemption events, where your points have significantly increased value from their baseline!
The most common Bonus Redemption event is the “200,000 points = 300,000 points”. These happen around every 3 or 4 months. There are other redemption events out there, but unfortunately they tend to happen quite infrequently and typically only occur once or twice a year; think Black Friday or Christmas.
With the “200k = 300k” event, you’re given an extra $100 of “free stuff” to purchase. This means that your points are worth 50% more, as long as you reach that $300 threshold. Interestingly, this does NOT mean that your real cash back increases by 50%. NEIGH! You will not go from 23% real cash back for a 20x the points event to 35%. Funny things work funny ways.
But really, the scaling doesn’t work well with direct percentages, because of how the real cash back percent is calculated (based on adding your points value to your out of pocket spending). However, the 50% increase scaling works perfectly if you go by the “times the points” number. Ie: 20x the points now becomes 30x the points, which is then converted to a percentage (31%).
So, now that we have this lovely extra variable to play with, let’s see how it changes our cake and its components.
Reviewing our Xx Points to RCB Percent conversion chart above, now we’ve gone from 22x to 28.7x the points (25% – 30%) at normal redemption value up to 33x to 43x the points ( 33% – 39%) real cash back during bonus redemptions for the most efficient way to maximize the program. Using the more strenuous method, we’ve improved from ~25x – 32x the pts (27% – 32% real cash back) up to ~37.5x – 48x the points (36% – 42%). And you can still reach even higher levels using the PC App/In-store bonus items too. That’s quite something, isn’t it?
For curiosity’s sake, this is how the PC Insiders’ value is affected:
Even with the improved real cash back return, I still can’t recommend a PC Insiders subscription. The lure of 12.2% at the $12,000/year PC-only spending level is completely unrealistic for the average shopper, and the 25% / 75% line still remains quite terrible compared to all the other bonus strategies we’ve looked at so far.
What About Taxes?
On a brief note, all these calculations and points events only include groceries that are not taxed (aka “basic groceries”). If you add some non-basic groceries or goods (taxed items) into the purchase, then taxes will eat some of that return away. It won’t be too terrible, between approximately 0 and 5 percentage points, depending on how much of your groceries are taxable, but something to keep in mind.
For example, if everything you bought and redeemed was fully HST taxed, then your $75 event value would decrease from 33% real cash back to 29.5%. We’ll touch more on the topic of taxes in a future part of this blog series.
A Dangerous Caveat
Remember that when you go to redeem points on one of the bonus redemption events, like the 200,000pts for $300, it’s actually quite a challenge to spend $300 on regular grocery essentials that you’d normally purchase. This is excluding expensive things like perfume or video game consoles. So, try not to be tempted to buy things you’d normally wouldn’t buy, or things that are really expensive compared to other stores.
The Cost of 300
While you can’t control what the grocery items cost, you can control how you choose to approach purchasing those items and you can quite easily maximize the value of your efforts for the most return possible.
The following chart provides an interesting view point of how much it costs you to get $300 of “free stuff depending on the strategies you use.
Combo 1 is the easiest and most efficient way to do things. However, Combo 2 is easy enough when it’s available and provides a nice little boost. Combo 3 gives you the max, but the tiny extra return is not really worth the effort in my opinion.
But there’s always a price to pay. When you look at what it costs you to obtain 300,000 points at the most inefficient level (15pts/dollar with no bonus redemption events), you have to purchase $20,000 of merchandise. That’s an extremely terrible return, and why you never, EVER, buy items from SDM unless you have at least a 20x points event to go to.*
How many hours do you have to work at your job to save $20,000 to spend at SDM, just so you can earn $300 of “free stuff”? How much time is that $300 worth to you? If you’re using this program inefficiently, you’re wasting your time and money. But with just a bit of planning and strategy, you can reduce the expenditure required easily and consistently by 97%. What other rewards program have you EVER heard where you can work it like that?! None!
If I haven’t convinced you yet, let’s try another way of looking at it. You could spend $20,000 to get $300 of “Free cash” to redeem. Or if you use Combo 1, you can spend $20,000 but this time you’ll get $9,900 of “free cash” to redeem… Let that sink in for a second!
$20,000 to get $300…
OR…
$20,000 to get $9,900
It’s an easy decision isn’t it.
It Came Upon Me Unattended…
So this was originally going to be the end of the article, but I came across something that I just had to share because of its semi-nonsensical and comedic nature. Think of it as a bonus!
Galen Weston’s Silly Email...
PC sent out an email a few weeks back on September 10, 2020 which I recently read while writing this article. The email was written by the MAN himself, Mr. Galen Weston! The subject was entitled “Galen’s 5 tips for maximizing your PC Optimum points…”, where Mr. Weston wanted to share his “top tips” for earning maximum PC points… yeah… needless to say I was slightly intrigued, yet ready to call out some BS! These are his “best tips”, and I’m not making this up…
Tip 1: “Download the PC App….”
Ok, Galen, this doesn’t directly get me any points… Come on now!
Tip 2: “Check the app before you go shopping, it’s like your own personal flyer….”
This seems strangely like Tip 1! I sense a double tip-dip going on here… Also, Galen, are you trying to sell me more things than I want to buy? And how do you know what I want to buy? Have you been snooping around on my purchases!? Oh, and these personalized ads would have been more useful yesterday BEFORE I bought all the things you are now trying to sell again to me. I’m stocked up!! I don’t need more!
Tip 3: “Shop and Scan… It’s that simple, members who do these three things every week earn about 3.9% back in points on what you spend. Crazy good value…”
Fair enough… You don’t get points if you don’t scan your card… However, none of these 3 tips are technically maximizing anything so far. And where are you getting this “3.9% back” from? I don’t always need to buy things advertised on the PC App, and I don’t get even base level points on every dollar that I spend unless I’m at SDM.
Oh, and if you think 3.9% is a “Crazy good value”, then you don’t know your own program very well… or maybe… you don’t want anyone else to know your program very well.. Hmmm…
Tip 4: “Become a PC Optimum Insiders Member – a one year subscription costs $119…PLUS TAXES!!!”
Now Hold Your Horses there Galen!! You’ve gone too far with this one! Now I have to pay EXTRA money to “maximize” my points? No no no… NOT TODAY!!
Tip 5: “Apply for the PC Financial Mastercard…”
Alright, you win this one Galen. For once we agree on something. Although that “up to 3%” back is still not what I’d considered getting maximum points.
Final Words from Galen: “Those are my five easy tips for getting absolutely the most out of our PC Optimum Program. Customers… Those who know how to max out their points do what we call “Stacking”… which can bring the total value back as high as 8.5%…”
Galen, Galen, Galen… 8.5%? Really? That’s it? I feeeeel like you’re holding something back on us… you’re missing a few High Profile-High Return items, like… I dunno… maybe a …. 20x THE POINTS EVENT!?!?! orrrr, a BONUS REDEMPTION EVENT?!?!? Do any of these ring a bell? No? I’ll send you my article Galen, so we’re on the same page for our next discussion. 😉
The Conclusion
So we’ve figured out a good, NEIGH, a great way to efficiently max out the program to help combat some of the ways SDM tries to gouge you with their prices and products. The rewards are there, oh yes, but they can be elusive and deceptive if you’re not aware of what to watch out for.
To achieve the PC Points’ true value, you need to not only focus your shopping on 20x the points (or better) events, but also need to redeem your points on bonus redemption days. With these tools you can easily achieve 33x to 43x the points, t hereby reaching a minimum real cash back return on your money of 33%-39%. At the very least you should be striving for the new vanilla baseline level of 23%. Time to put what you’ve learned into practice. Good Luck!
Oh, and I hope you enjoyed the cake! …. … and the horse jokes!
Next time on, the PRICE IS… err… the PC Optimum Program – Part 4:….
We’ll be looking at how to easily and quickly calculate the actual true value of any single item at SDM using the “Rule of Averages”, and at what point YOUR Points become worthless!
*This rule doesn’t apply if you need something urgently, ie: medications, baby supplies, etc.
**I realized I made an error with this article after I originally published it in regards to the calculations. Originally I had just added the percents of all strategies used together to find the total RCB return. At the time, I failed to realize that this didn’t apply properly nor scale the way I expected it to. The reason for this I think is that individual point strategies provide different “percentage returns”, and to calculate those returns involves adding the total value of bonus points to the amount spent out of pocket. So, for example, I based a 3% return on spending a total of $103 and getting $3 back. And I would have based a 20% Return on spending $125 total and receiving $25 back. Because the denominators (dollar amounts) are different, we can’t just add the percentages together. Whereas looking at individual strategies from a “times the points” perspective is based on a common denominator. Ie: Base Points is 15pts/dollar, which is 1x; 30pts/dollar is 2x, 45pts/dollar is 3x, etc. I am not a mathematician, just a guy writing stuff with some math. My apologies for the error. The calculations are now based first on “times the points” amounts added together, and then converted to a cash back percentage. The updated calculations have reduced the real cash back return somewhat, although they still remain overall fairly impressive. The article has been updated accordingly.
